Through the personal work I do with my platform The Passionate Voice, I’ve always worked to help others, both personal and businesses, to harness their voice through social media work and in-person communications training. Helping them to learn how they can speak up, be heard and make impact in whatever industry they are in.

A perfect example of this is Ag Women’s Network. There are so many fellow women in agriculture/food and fellow bloggers and social media users who are putting themselves out there about the topics and issues that matter most to them. Its also an incredible personal development forum to learn from each other. I recently challenged these same women to blog (or start blogging!) with me in the personal #Blog452 challenge I’ve set for myself this year. One month in to 2017 and I’m happy to say, I’ve blogged every week!

I realize putting yourself out there to the online world takes confidence and guts.. and some would shy away from this. I also realize that there are a lot of ‘fence sitters’ who are watching others around them do what they wished they themselves would or could do. This isn’t a bad place to be in though so all the ‘fence sitters’ reading this, take this as your “call to action” post 🙂

Have you thought of starting a blog but held off, time after time, because you were worried what others would think or weren’t sure how to get easily started?

Have you been in a meeting and wanted to say something but feared what others would think and so you refrained from sharing your thoughts?

Have you wanted to give a talk at the front of a room but feared what the crowd may think of you and/or how you would be able to present in front of an audience?

Putting yourself out there to the rest of the world is not easy. Once you begin speaking your mind and showcasing your passion or what your good at on a platform, it is an outlet to be quickly judged by others. Not everyone can do it nor are you ever really ‘ready’ for what follows once you finally do put yourself out there for the rest of the world to judge.

Putting yourself out there doesn’t necessarily mean big, elaborate gestures. It can be the smallest, most simple step. It can be finally putting up your hand at a meeting and saying something. It could be sending that email to the person you’ve always wanted to contact with. Joining a committee, board or team after thinking about it joining. It could mean FINALLY starting that blog/website to showcase your talents and what your good at in hopes that one day you’ll be recognized for those talents or to positively make a difference.

Putting yourself out there is never easy. But it is SO worth it once you do. Trust me, this is something I’ve struggled with in doing my work at The Passionate Voice. These posts don’t just write themselves… and many of my posts have sat in draft form until this year when I committed to 2017’s #Blog452Challenge.

But I promise, just go ahead and test the waters and you’ll see what I mean.

Really, what’s the worse thing that could happen….. besides crappy tweets from people or hearing crickets because you don’t think anyone is reading? In all seriousness, what really is the worse thing that could happen?

If anything, as I’ve personally learned, you’ll be mad at yourself that you didn’t put your sh*t out there SOONER.

Society takes communication for granted. Period. Of all the skills we have/learn as human beings, no one gives enough credit to “communication” as the fundamental skill we possess as humans. I truly believe it is the #1 skill we all have.

Communication is the reason why conflict exists or doesn’t exist; why relationships, both personal or professional, are healthy and effective (or not); and why business gets done each day (efficiently or not). Really, communication is the reason why the world goes round (for the most part!).

People forget that just because you open your mouth, does not mean you are a good communicator.

This got me thinking…. if communication is the most fundamental skill we possess, then why do we take it for granted?

Its free.

We do it everyday without having to think about the act of doing it.

We don’t look at communication as a skill like we do other skills such as decision making, negotiating or taking a course on leadership.

We take communication for granted simply because its easy and comes naturally to us. But just because it comes easily to us, does not mean we’re good at it. We can think whatever we want, but if we can’t articulate those thoughts in a way others can understand, then our thoughts are wasted. and we’ve been ineffective communicators.

Here are 5 reasons why communication shouldn’t be taken for granted:

It is the main vehicle we use to shape our views and articulate who we are and our thoughts, to others. Through communication, others get to see who we are as people.

Not everyone has the same communication style – everyone’s communication style is different and so, each person needs to adjust accordingly.

As the age old saying goes, “Assuming makes an Ass out of You and Me!” You can’t assume anything when communicating but yet, we do. Hence, why conflict exists. We need to look at communication like a skill we have to work on each and everyday as we would in the same way we pay for expensive courses and training in skills like negotiating, leadership and decision making.

Communication includes many platforms and these platforms impact how a person communicates. A person on social media may communicate ideas differently than someone who writes for a newspaper. We have to be cautious that different languages may be used based on what platform we’re using.

Communication is not just verbal; it is all encompassing. It includes both verbal and non-verbal cues, body language being the most important. In fact, according to Psychology Today, body language accounts for 55% of communication, 38% is tone of voice and 7% is the actual words we say.